Volume XXVI No. 6 June, 1971 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE Assocuim OF xwisH Rffueas BI OIIAT BRITAM W. Rosenstock tolerance which the Jews in this coimtry enjoy. This makes it easier for them to retain their identity without being discriminated against. Yet it also has its centrifugal effect TOPICALITY OF THE PAST because lack of prejudice is bound to further total absorption. The current debates on the increasing intermarriage rate reflect this One of the latest issues of "The Times harm to themselves or to their community. development, the end of which cannot be fore­ Literary Supplement" carried no less than Blumenfeld did not deny this, but added that seen. twelve reviews of works relating to political in England Jewish politicians acted as " iden­ trends in Germany during the past 150 years, tified Jews " (" deklarierte Juden "). This may The pre-occupation with German history in including evaluations of the Nazi movement have held good a generation ago, and, to a general and with the piosition of the Jews and its effects on the German Jews. Similarly, certain extent, it also applies to the present within the German orbit is, therefore, not other editions of that valuable paper as well generation. Many Jews who are active in par­ accidental. It only reaffirms the immense as references in the national press testify to liamentary life at the same time hold leading topicality of the subject. Under this aspect, the steadily rising number of pubUcations in positions within the Jewish community. the research work for which the Leo Baeck this field, both in Germany and in English On the other hand we have, since our ar­ Institute was founded goes beyond the fulfil­ speaking countries. rival, witnessed a process of transformation. ment of a moral duty towards our own past. This extensive production is mainly due to Thirty years ago, a high proportion of British It also serves a decisive purpose within the two sets of circumstances. The one is that the Jews were foreign born. 'Today most of Anglo- wider context of general historiography, Ger­ amount of source material, not yet unearthed Jewry's poUtically active personalities are man and Jewish. Every pubUcation of the In­ or scrutinised, is considerably larger than British born, though as children of immigrants stitute is an important piece in the mosaic, usually assumed and wili therefore keep his­ they still experienced the " Yiddishkeit" of and under this aspect the latest Year Book of torians busy for a very long time to come. The their parents' homes. Now, gradually, a third the L.B,I, deserves as wide recognition as its second reason is an urge of coming to grips generation is coming to the fore which is not preceding volumes.* with the phenomenon, not to say enigma, of only of British birth, but also of British born Germany. How could it happen? How far was parentage. If we take the mass immigration Year Book of Leo Baeck Institute Nazism rooted in what is called the " national at the turn of the century as the starting point character" of the Germans? Were the coun­ of contemporary Anglo-Jewish history, the New light on the role of Jewish politicians ter-forces of radicalism, liberalism, socialism, corresponding starting period in German his­ during the Bismarck era is shed by Wemer moderate conservative nationalism or religion tory is the emancipation at the beginning of E. Mosse in his essay " Conflict of Liberalism negligible, or did they stand a chance of the 19th century, i.e. one hundred years and Nationalism". The two main antagonists averting the evil? These are the questions earlier. This is, of course, a crude statement, were Leopold Sonnemann, owner and editor which, expressly or implicitly, consciously or because there was already a most active Jew­ of the Frankfurter Zeitung, a representa­ sub-consciously, loom behind the research. ish community in this country before the tive of " pure " Liberalism, and Ludwig Bam­ The efforts at finding the answers are not only arrival of the pogrom victims from Russia. berger, a leader of the National Liberals. One essential because they may explain the hap­ Yet their descendants are a minority in of the issues on which they clashed was the penings of the past. They are also of practical comparison with those of the Eastern Jewish enforced Germanisation of Alsace-Lorraine importance for the present and the future. immigrants. It, therefore, appears justified to after the Prussian-French war. Bamberger They have their bearing on the policy of post­ claim that, mutatis mutandis, the present acted as Bismarck's main spokesman in de­ war Germany. Yet they equally have their im­ position in this country corresponds to that fending this policy whereas Sonnemann, con­ pact on the policy of other nations because, of German Jewry in the 1870s. One difference sistent with the basic principles of Liberalism, in our turbulent days, hardly any country is which comes to mind is the greater degree of violently opposed it. Equally the two crossed free from the dangers of mass hypnosis or in­ swords on the SoziaUstengesetz and, to some tolerance towards minorities. extent, in the Kulturkampf issue. Whilst Son­ At the same time this delving into the past The Association of Jewish Refugees in nemann opposed Bismarck's anti-Catholic legis­ is important for the assessment of the present Great Britain lation unreservedly, Bamberger voted for the position of Jews in the Diaspora. The confron­ " kanzelparagraph". Sonnemann's Frank­ tation of the Jewish minority with their herewith invites its members to its furter Zeitung dissociated itself from Bis­ environment occurred in Germany earlier marck's objectives, whereas the National Lib­ than in most other countries. It started at a GENERAL MEETING eral Berliner Tageblatt published vitriolic time when the masses of the Jews lived in on Thursday, June 17, at 7.45 p.m. attacks against the Jesuits. This divergence Eastern Europe as an ethnic group with a at Hannah Karminski House, dispels the antisemitic sham of a united language and culture of their own. Only after 9 Adamson Road, Swiss Cottage, N.W.3 Jewish poUtical front. From a specific Jewish their exodus from Russia to America and, to point of view, Sonnemann was probably more a lesser extent, to Britain had they to come in line with Jewish ideals and also with to terms with the problem of integrating into Jewish self-interests when he fought for the a predominantly Gentile society without losing Reports on AJR Activities rights of minorities and against exaggerated their Jewish identity. We are used to saying Treasurer's Report nationalism. On the other hand, it is one of that in this respect the position is easier in Election of Executive and Board the yardsticks of fuU emancipation, present-day America than it was in pre-1933 (The list of candidates submitted by the Executive whether Jews have a free choice between all Germany, because the United States is con­ is published on page 16) political parties of whether, de jure or de sidered as a pluralistic society in which all No further notice will be given. facto, they are barred from some of them immigrant groups and their descendants may n on account of their origin, as was the case in develop their own sub-cultures within the Dr. Eva G. Reichmann: the German Conservative (later German pattern of the wider body politic. We are also National) Party. inclined to stress the difference between the DEUTSCHLAND OHNE JCDEN? status of the Jews in this country and that in Gedanken zu einer deutschen Publikation. * Leo Baeck Institute. Ymr Book XV. Edited by Robert Germany. When Kurt Blumenfeld advised the Weltsch, East and West Lit>rary, London, 1969. 320 pp. Jews in Germany to keep aloof from political Non-memhers are not entitled to vote, but 26 Illustrations. £3. Free of charge for members of the activities, it was argued that in England Jews are welcome as guests at the meeting. Society of Friends of the L.B.I, held high positions in political Ufe without Continued on page 2, column 1 Page 2 AJR INFORMATION June, 1971 Jewry at the end of its darkest period. As, TOPICALITY OF THE PAST for obvious reasons, written records hardly exist, it is particularly important that the reminiscences of those who were involved Continued from page 1 antisemitism in his early days when his appli­ cations for a teacher's job were repeatedly have been related and assessed. Yet beyond The political scene in the past century also rejected on account of his religion. During this, the article is a memento to the heroic comes to light in a stimulating essay by the First World War, when he gradually deeds of the Jewish resistance fighters. Arthur Prinz on " New Perspectives on Marx realised the dangers of German chauvinism, Recent history is also recorded in Curt D. as a Jew," The author has discovered new he became bitterly disappointed by the rising Wormann's article about the German Jews in material from which he concludes that, to­ antisemitism, which even the Jewish soldiers Israel and their cultural situation since 1933. wards the end of his life, Marx departed from in the trenches had to endure, and after the For readers in this country it becomes evident his anti-Jewish bias, which is manifested in war, the precarious Jewish position under the that in Palestine the gap between the German many of his well-known writings and utter­ Weimar Republic was a constant source of language background of the immigrants and ances. When in Karlsbad for a health cure, he worry to him and also made him revise his the language of the country of resettlement was almost exclusively in the company of attitude to Zionism, though he never associ­ was much wider than in Anglo-Saxon coun­ Jews, and among the persons with whom he ated himself with the movement.